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Coping with COVID: For those exposed, local health experts urge testing

Against new testing guidelines from the CDC, health experts in the Kansas City metro are strongly recommending anyone exposed to COVID-19 or anyone considered at risk to get tested, regardless of whether they are asymptomatic.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a modified set of guidelines for coronavirus testing, now excluding people who are asymptomatic, or show no symptoms.

Counter to new guidelines, Kansas City area health experts are advising just the opposite, urging that anyone exposed or at risk, despite being asymptomatic, should get tested.

“Science demonstrates that people infected with COVID-19 can spread the virus to family, friends and members of their community, even if they show no symptoms,” Juliann Van Liew, director of the Unified Government Public Health Department, said in a Thursday news release.

“In order to control the pandemic, it’s incredibly important that we provide testing for everyone who has been exposed and those considered at risk,” Van Liew said.

CDC testing guidelines now state that individuals who have come into close contact with an infected person, yet show no symptoms, may not need to be tested.

Kansas City health departments in the region now say that local criteria for COVID-19 testing will remain the same despite national guideline changes.